M&A Report: Suppliers Buying Suppliers

The second quarter was marked by a few supplier deals, such as service contractors Champion Nationwide Contractor and George E. Fern buying The Audie Group, and Freeman purchasing face-to-face marketing firm ProActive.

But the hunger for suppliers looking to make deals kept up as the third quarter got underway, and the lazy, hazy days of summer are anything but, with plenty of activity in the mergers and acquisitions market.

July kicked off with Las Vegas-based GES Exposition Services purchasing, through its GES Canada affiliate, Quebec City-based Poitras Exposition Services.

"The Poitras addition to our Quebec operations now positions GES Canada as the major official contractor in the province," said Mike Lecour, executive vice president of GES Canada. "This strong presence allows us to supply all our lines of business and technological advantages to service the requirements of GES clients in the region, as well as our worldwide clients producing shows in Quebec City."

In addition to official service contractor services, Poitras provides furnishings, exhibits and design, graphics and material-handling services. According to Lecour, Poitras will function as a separate operation under GES Canada — Quebec that will be known as Poitras Exposition Services — a division of GES Canada. Poitras management and staff will remain in place.

"The employees of Poitras are excited to be a part of the GES worldwide network," said Anne-Pierre Paquet, Poitras general manager. "GES Canada is a first-class operation with a superb management team, and we look forward to opportunities we now have to provide even better service to exhibition clients."

GES wasn't the only supplier out shopping. PRI Productions, an event production company in Jacksonville, Fla., decided it wanted to dip its toes into the tradeshow business. So it bought another local company, Southeastern Decorators.

"We are excited about this acquisition," said Randy Goodwin, president of PRI Productions and now Southeastern Decorators. "PRI Productions has long considered entering the tradeshow industry. When the opportunity presented itself to us, we were intrigued by the opportunity to further serve our clients in the form of tradeshow and equipment rental services."

Southeastern Decorators rents tables, chairs, linens, draping, signage, banners and carpet to both show managers and exhibitors.

PRI Productions' Brian Bayless has been promoted to director of tradeshow services for Southeastern Decorators, Goodwin said.

In non-supplier news, a number of events changed hands in the first half of July.

ALM, a media company that serves legal and business professionals with its portfolio of magazines, newspapers, conferences and tradeshows, was sold to Incisive Media for $630 million. ALM was formed in 1997 by U.S. Equity Partners, a private equity fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co.

"Since its formation, ALM has established a 10-year track record of success," said Anup Bagaria, vice chairman of Wasserstein & Co. "We congratulate Bill Pollak and his senior management team on all they have achieved over the past decade, and we wish them, the company and its new owners the best of luck in the future."

One of the shows sold in the deal was LegalTech. Held in New York in the winter and on the West Coast in the summer, it draws legal professionals to a showfloor filled with technology for the legal industry.

The Institute for Intl. Research was also in the market for conferences and scooped up 10 of them, as well as five online private communities and other Web assets from Shared Insights. Corporate Solutions represented Shared Insights in the transaction.

"This acquisition will further expand the technology conference offerings to IIR's existing clients," said Nick Curci, president of Corporate Solutions. "IIR's marketing strength and their management will enhance their dominance in the technology conference business."